Sports Round-up

Bernie Ecclestone was told to make a "serious" offer for The Kirch Group's 58.3 per cent share in Formula One's commercial rights, yesterday.

Ecclestone, who already owns 25 per cent, is understood to want to buy back the share he sold to The Kirch Group for £1.4 billion last year, but at only £490 million.

However, Kirch company spokesman Hartmut Schultz said: "This is not an offer we would take seriously." He added that Ecclestone has not yet made an official approach.

David Coulthard's new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen showed the Scot he will be a tough man to beat this year by setting another lap record in testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain yesterday.

Raikkonen beat Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya's record at the track in the final day of testing as he finished in 1min 10.937sec.

Lawn Tennis

Top seeded Monica Seles eased into the quarter-finals of the WTA Qatar Open in Doha yesterday as No 2 seed Sandrine Testud was ousted by an unknown Slovakian.

Seles, given a first-round bye, eased past Venezuela's Maria Vento Kabchi 6-2, 6-3, while Frenchwoman Testud, ranked No 11 in the world, was shocked by the 68th-ranked Janette Husarova, of Slovakia, who won 7-6 (7-5), 0-6, 6-2.

Husarova's reward is a last-eight meeting with Anastasia Myskina, of Russia, while Seles will play Australian No 8 seed Nicole Pratt who defeated Tunisia's Selima Sfar 6-1, 6-1.

Swimming

Kirsty Balfour and Kate Haywood will be keen to impress selectors in the Speedo British Grand Prix in Leeds this weekend, the first long course meet of the year only six weeks before the Commonwealth trials.

Balfour, 17, broke the British 100m breast-stroke record at the European Short Course championships in December only for Heidi Earp, of Nova Centurion, to reclaim it the semi-final.

But Balfour and Earp will be monitoring the fast improving Haywood, 14, from Lincoln, who lowered the long standing British junior marks for the 50m and 100m and is now less than one second outside the senior time.

James Hickman, who travels to Moscow for the World Short Course Championships days before the Commonwealth trials, has set himself a target of 1min 58sec for the 200m butterfly this weekend.

Basketball

The worst fears of Chester Jets coach Robbie Peers are being realised as injuries hit his side days after the BBL's transfer deadline.

Chester have suffered two league defeats in five days, having lost forward Michael Redd, out for the season with a broken foot, and American All Star John McCord, who has a back problem.

Another All Star, James Hamilton, is playing with an ankle injury picked up in Chester's National Cup Final victory in January.

Sheffield Sharks now trail Chester by only six points in the Northern Conference and have two games in hand.

Table Tennis

Carl Prean and Andrea Holt, both seeded to reach the semi-finals on their return to the English National Championships in Sheffield after a three-year absence, will be aiming for their fourth national titles on March 2.

Prean, 34, will need to beat the Milton Keynes professional Andrew Baggaley in the quarter-finals to reach a semi-final showdown with the holder Matthew Syed, who has never beaten him.

Holt, 31, from Manchester, has a tough draw that should lead to a semi-final clash with the holder Nicola Deaton, of Derbyshire, who is seeking her fifth national title.